I came across an article that pointed me to CNet UK Crave's list of the "Top 10 Geek Girls." Among the contenders were Ada Bryon (the world's first programmer), Val Tereshkova (the first woman in space), Grace Hopper (wrote first compiler), and Marie Curie (who discovered radium and polonium). The names on list sound great, until the author includes Daryl Hannah (Eco-Friendly Geek Icon), Lisa Simpson (cartoon), and...Paris Hilton (Famous Girl "Gamer)? Whoa. Now I know writers like to be a bit controversial, but there's a fine line between raising eyebrows and insulting women everywhere. A list of Top Ten Nerds and Geeks was also created, and guess what? Not one single woman was on the list. So I want to know, where are all the geek girls, for real? I did a little research, and guess what? There are plenty of geek girls to talk about.
I nominated ten more geek girls that I thought are worthy of being included on the list. You can read more about my nominations on the Ultimate Girl Geeks of All Time post. But here's a sneak preview of my list:
- Hypatia: First women known to have participated in the male-dominated scientific and academic world. Her inventions eventually lead to devices used today to check a car battery's charge by testing the acid. All before 415 A.D. when she was stoned to death.
- Josephine Cochran: Created the first functional diswasher in 1893.
- Ellen Swallow Richards: First woman to graduate and teach at MIT. Also the first woman to get a degree in Chemistry, and she founded two fields: Home Economics and Ecology.
- Hedy Lamarr: Actress and co-creator of classified communications system for the military. The technology she invented is now used in cell phones and Wi-Fi connections.
- Frances Gabe: Created the first self-cleaning house ever.
- Erna Shneider Hoover: Created first computerized telephone switching system.
- Annie Chiang: Developed of TFT technology now used in flat panel displays.
- Roberta Williams: Created first video game with graphics. And first to make all her main video game characters women.
- Cynthia Breazeal: Creates socially intelligent robots that interact with people.
- Janese Swanson: Her mission is to develop the minds of the next generation of girls, who would enjoy, relate to, and use technology just as much as boys do.
Any of these gals hold more weight than Daryl, Lisa and Paris anytime, anyday. Who do nomiate as the ultimate geek girl? Why?
[…] original folks left over there are Roberta Williams (King’s Quest) and Ken Williams (Founder) …Where Are The Ultimate Geek Girls? | Techie DivaI came across an article that pointed me to CNet UK Crave’s list of the Top 10 Geek Girls. Among the […]
Frances Allen, who was a computer scientist at IBM, received the 2006 Turing Award in June for program optimization work that led to modern methods for high-speed computing.
Allen is noted for her development of Ptran (Parallel Translation), a specific method for running a program over multiple processors to improve speed and efficiency.
Frances Allen.
Allen received an undergraduate degree in education from the Albany State Teachers College–now State University of New York at Albany–and a master’s degree in mathematics from the University of Michigan.
She joined IBM in 1957 to teach the Fortran (Formula Translation) programming language. From there, she went on to develop program optimization, language-independent optimizers and Ptran.
Her work provided the foundation for the high-speed computing systems used today for forecasting weather, matching DNA and analyzing national security.
In 1989, Allen was made the first female IBM Fellow. She is now an IBM Fellow Emeritus, recognized for her work in mentoring women and men in technology.
As the webmaster of a site dedicated to Roberta Williams’ games, THANK YOU for honoring her! You go Techie Diva!